WPRFC U15s Cheshire Bowl Winners 2019.

By Charles De Keyzer

Triple Gold with Third Trophy in Three years!

At the final whistle the maroon shirts slumped to the ground or didn't know where to look. They had been leading 19:6 at half time and we're heading towards a win ......... What had happened?The blue and whites, on the other hand held their hands skywards as they ran screaming and jumping into each other's arms, all at the same time! They had just come from behind to grind out a phenomenal 19:23 victory in the Cheshire Bowl Final earning them their Third Trophy in Three years.As hoarse players and parents recovered , some thought back to the Five semi-finals in a row, their First Plate Final appearance losing 4 tries to 2 to a much bigger team, followed by Two Plate Final Victories on the trot followed by this, a tense and brittle Bowl Final against last years Cheshire Cup winners with their tough and relentless forward pack and swift backs.A famous victory, worth all of the hard work through the season, Winnington Park had played their hearts out for a deserved win.The game started with pressure from Park, not allowing Wirral out of its 22 for virtually the ,first 15 minutes. The ball crossed the line a couple of times, but was held up. Unfortunately, all that Park got from that period of pressure was 3 points from a penalty kick.Wirral struck back, Hard! Despite many strong tackles and highly competitive contact play the opposition ended the first half 19:6 up. It looked like they were up for it more..........but that was deceptive as Park went on to win the second half by 0:17, shutting out a normally high-scoring Wirral team completely.

After the re-start Winnington camped in Wirral's 22 again , a series of passes and strong runs led to WillG scoring , making the score 19:11. The next period was dominated by highly contested back and forth play in the middle of the field.A dummy from a ruck led to a second try, this one from DanM at about the 50 minute mark. 19:16 with not much time to go.In a nerve-shredding period Park applied immense pressure, trying to score one more to go into the lead. Wirral blocked all runs as Park nearly went over twice. In the end, and to everyone's relief, Jack dotted the ball down over the line, following it though with a conversion. 19:23 .

The last few minutes were tense! Wirral struck back again, but couldn't get closer than the 10 yard line. It was tense!! Eventually winning a penalty , Park checked the time with the referee and kicked the ball out of play to the sound of the final whistle , the Winnington players went bananas. A well-deserved victory for the players, relief for the parents and fellow U15s squad members Oscar and Adam , who were there supporting their mates.